Log:Gosse Point Blank
Gosse Point Blank
OOC Date: February 13, 2016
Location: The Blue Light, Nar Shaddaa
Participants: Uli Gosse, Stavros, Yvie Gosse, Rebel Yell
It's mid-afternoon. All is quiet in the hangar. Most people are out doing their things. Uli is still too injured for all but the lightest duty, though he doesn't hang around the infirmary all day anymore. He's...rather inexplicably, standing in one corner, sort of staring at an electronic bulletin board that also shows departure and arrival information. His eyes are glazed over and he's sort of swaying a little bit on his feet.
Stavros climbs out of the service elevator shaft, breathing heavily as he claws a path away from the ladder and scrambles to his feet unsteadily. He wipes the back of his right hand across his forehead, spreading a bit of grime across the glaze of sweat. (Contain yourselves, ladies.) He looks around while forcing a better rhythm onto his breaths, and walks over to the walking wounded. "Hey Uli. That damn elevator." He takes in Uli's stance and expression. "Uh, you okay?" It takes a half second for Uli's brain to kick into gear. When he does, it's with a weird sort of slow motion. He reaches out to grab Stavros' collar with his one un-braced hand. He grips and leans in. His blue eyes look nearly black for the size of his pupils. "Stavros...man! I..." he pauses, weaves a bit, then slurs. "I have the greatest idea!"
Stavros turns his head to the side, letting his left eye do most of the sizing-up. "Um, okay." He smiles slightly. "I think you're higher than the towers of Coruscant, but sometimes there's creativity there." He puts an arm on Uli's shoulder, to try to steady him a bit. "What's your idea?"
Uli is shaking ever so slightly, like he's got a full-body caffeine buzz. "Yeah, I forgot a dose and then took two doses which was probably a mistake." And then he breaks out into a rather not-manly giggle. "But man, I feel amazing." He weaves and leans in conspiratorally. "You should make me a bartender at the new bar. Just let me be like...an information point. Or at least that's what we'll tell my sister. Being a bartender is a legitimate job."
"I don't think that's what you're supposed to do, no," Stavros says uncertainly. His latest project does get a smile, though. "You could do that. We can go by the Blue Light later, invite Yvie. After you've come down some, though, all right? The last thing you need right now is a drink, and if we go to a bar, well-"
Skip to a few hours later at the Blue Light. Uli is slumped over a table. He's come down from the effects of his double-dose and now has a wicked headache. "Why, why did you let me contact my sister, dude? I need some time to prepare." He's taken his arm out of the sling so he looks less obviously injured. The side effect of that is the pressure on the wound causing low, thrumming pain. "This is a terrible plan. Don't ever let me make plans while high again."
"It's not a bad plan. It's just bad timing," Stavros answers. "What was I supposed to do, shoot you? Kelnas or Lowkeyyy might have been able to stop you, but not me." Stavros has some irridescent purple drink with foam atop it in a fancy glass, though he's been warning off bartenders who try to get Uli to order something.
And arrive Yvie does. Much like many of her other meetings involving the Rebel Yell, the archaeologist sweeps into the bar and immediately looks for her brother. She's quite disappointed to find him in the company of Stavros. Moving toward the pair, she glances between them, easily seeing that Uli has been injured and patched up - again. "Uli!" she gasps. "What happened? What's wrong?" Looking up at Stavros, she gives him a suspicious look. She expects he has something to do with this.
"Dude, the state I was in? You would just have to push me into a comfortable chair and I would have passed out." Uli leans back and pinches his nose. It distracts him and allows Yvie to sneak-attack. Or as sneak-attacky as a beeline can be, in any case. He sucks in a deep breath and looks to his sister. "Yvie. I'm fine, I'm fine. I've been tended to. By a real doctor. With a real medbay." Which is a novelty for them.
Stavros is also taken unawares. He hides a guilty expression behind his glass of booze. He hides it for some time, really, not quite chugging but close. As he starts to lower it, his face scrunches up and his eyes close. He clutches his forehead with his hand. "Ow- brainfreeze." Then he gives an experimental wave to the archaeologist.
Worried, she slides into the seat next to Uli - studying him and the patching up done to him. "This is worse than when I saw you last. What happened? Was this that job you said you were working? Or were you lying about that, too?" Her words are pointed. As Stavros starts to drink and then keeps drinking, she eyes him and then looks back at Uli. Something is going on here. At the wave, she settles forward, finally acknowledging the Zeltron. "Maybe you'd care to explain how my brother came to be like this?"
"Yvie..." says Uli. He exhales and runs the fingers of his good hand through his hair. "I'm fine, all right? I was in a little over my head, but everyone's fine." He's avoiding eye contact. "Look, Rebel Yell owns this bar and I'm going to work here. Will that make you happy?" He's a pretty good liar. Stavros knows that's not entirely true, but it sounded mostly true.
Uli Gosse tests his Bluff skill at a 100 difficulty. -Failed- (-2).
You test your Sense Motive skill at a 100 difficulty. +SUCCESS+ (47).
The Zeltron doesn't even address the lies in play. He seizes upon the truth and runs with it. "Isn't this place great? It's got gambling without being skeezy, it's got this neighborhood tavern feel even though it's the best in the Sector. Classier than any Hutt place. You can make good tips here, and with as many Rebel Yell folks who'll be coming in, it'll be the safest place on the moon."
"I know you don't like me, Yvie," Stavros says, looking at the woman and making eye contact. "That hurts a little. I know you want what's best for Uli. I do, too! I want him to be happy. I want him to know he's worth more than he generally believes." He half-smiles, and it makes his eyes smaller as his cheeks move up. "I want him to be safe. You don't have to like me, Yvie, but please don't thin I don't want what's best for Uli."
Stavros tests his Seduce skill at a 100 difficulty. +SUCCESS+ (29).
You test your Willpower skill at a 100 difficulty. +SUCCESS+ (29).
You test your Willpower skill at a 100 difficulty. -Failed- (-4).
"You don't look fine," Yvie tells him bluntly, worry clear in her tone. "You look tired and beat up." Frowning, she listens to him and as she does so, the frown keeps deepening. "This isn't about making me happy, Uli." Frowning, she takes a deep breath. Glancing over at Stavros as he attempts to explain things to her, she listens while still giving him a slight glare. With a deep breath, she eyes him and says. "If we're having this conversation, I will need a drink. If you wouldn't mind?" She's attempting a moment of conversation with her brother alone while he fills their orders. And - at least - she isn't yelling at him or openly distrusting him at the moment. A step forward.
Uli knows that's only the calm before the Yvie-shaped storm. And he fears her quiet sisterly anger more than the kind where she throws things. "This is about making you happy. Because what I want to do that will make //me// happy, you don't want me to do. And yes, being a borderline criminal makes me happy, because this entire moon is borderline criminal or straight up criminal. There's no way to be completely legit here. Might as well be semi-legit with backup. Even our parents paid protection money and bribed inspectors when they didn't have the proper licenses." He looks to Stavros before he steps away - if he does. "I'm sorry you're caught in the middle of a sibling squabble, man."
Stavros does not step away. He does flag down a bartender, order Yvie a shot of whiskey and a very mild mixed drink that tastes of honey and berries, all a bit slushy and with a tiny umbrella to keep the drink from getting sunburned. He doesn't appear embarrassed, just hums to himself slightly, with the occasional side-glance at Yvie showing he's not even slightly pretending to not be paying attention. He waves off Uli's apology as he takes another few gulps of his own fruity concoction.
When Stavros doesn't leave, Yvie frowns but does not back down. She will not stop talking just because someone not in the family is listening to their conversation. "You weren't speaking of being a borderline criminal, Uli. You were speaking of being a criminal full stop. And don't try to use our parents as an excuse. I've already told you there's a large difference between selling a few things on the black market and paying off an inspector rather than stealing and being beaten up because of what you do. Our dads were never brought home in bandages because of their trade." Her tone is flat and somewhat sad. "What makes you happy gets you hurt and in trouble and...look at you!" She waves a hand at his state. "How did you get like this? Just because you were taken care of after the event doesn't mean that the event itself didn't happen."
As Stavros isn't leaving, welcome to the Gosse family squabble. She looks at him. She's not attacking him. In fact, she almost looks like she's pleading. "Do you know what happened? Were you involved? You say you have Uli's best interests at heart - is this in his best interest?"
Uli's defense when Yvie goes at him like this is to get quiet and to lean an elbow on the table and rest his hand against his head. He sighs. "This conversation keeps going around and around in circles, Yvie. Neither of us are going to move." He exhales. "Maybe I should move out. Move into the crew barracks. Because I can't do this. I //can't// have you disapproving of everything I do. Were you honestly happier when I was picking pockets and getting pushed around by gangsters?" He eyes Stavros, curious to know if the Zeltron will spill the beans.
He's said it before: Stavros is not good at lying to people he likes. He opens his mouth, glances at Uli, then closes it, before rapping his fists on the counter a few times. The bartenders glance at him, but his attention is on the bar surface. He opens his mouth again, and then says, "Uli paid a price, but he is safer now than he was before." He wets his lower lip with his tongue. "Several of us risked our lives to make that so." He looks back at the male Gosse. His shoulders rise in a shrug, looking at Uli's eyes and raising his eyebrows. He seems to be trying to convey something, but it's not really clear what it is.
The last thing Yvie wants is to make him move out and in with the Rebel Yell crew. With a frown and a shake of her head, she looks toward the door, looking as if she just wants to escape the conversation. "I can find another place if that's what you want to do. I don't disapprove of everything you do." Looking at the untouched drinks in front of her, quickly drinking down the shot of whiskey. It burns in her throat and she coughs a few times. Then, she steadies herself, looking between Stavros and her brother. "I should go. I'm embarrassing you in front of your friend."
Looking to Stavros, she gives him a bit of a hard stare - not unfriendly, merely intense. "Let me know if he's in trouble. I know him saying that he was working for this bar was just a cover."
Uli //eyes// Stavros when he comes dangerously close to telling the truth of what happened. He frowns, tight-lipped and takes in a deep, sharp breath. It makes him cough a bit. Whatever the other man is trying to communicate doesn't seem to quite register with him. He looks back to Yvie. He cracks a little smile when she downs the whiskey, but it's fleeting. "Maybe it would be easier on you if you didn't see it so much." He doesn't mean that passive-aggressively, though it could be potentially interpeted that way. "I'm an adult, Yvie. I don't like that you hate everything I do, but it's my life. And you browbeating me about it isn't going to change that."
The Zeltron looks at Uli for a moment. "You're not embarrassing him," Stavros reassures Yvie. Then he looks at Uli for a minute, then back at Yvie. "But- maybe I should go." Maybe he should have left ten minutes ago. "The transition hasn't really begun, we're still learning the place, kind of. Anyway- great to see you again, Yvie. I can't spy on him for you," he says apologetically. "But don't hold it against me. It wouldn't be right for me to get in the middle." Where he is, right now. He rises from his bar stool, tosses several credits on the counter to cover his drink and the ones he bought Yvie, plus a generous tip. When the bartender comes by to collect, he leans forward and says to her, "Don't give him anything to drink tonight but water or soda. And, are you free this week to show him around?" He gestures for her to follow him down the bar, talking as he goes, disengagin himself.
"I told you, I don't hate everything you do." Yvie sighs at Uli just as Stavros gets up to go. "If that's what you want, then I'll move. I can find a new place. I'll be gone by the end of the week." The good will that Stavros had earned leaves as he calls it spying. Her eyes narrow. "I didn't say spying. I said if he was in trouble." There's a difference between trouble of the law and trouble of the mortal kind. "That's not getting in the middle of anything, it's letting me know if he's in the hospital." She looks at Uli and his state and realizes that perhaps that is still getting in the middle. Standing, she looks to Uli. "I didn't mean to browbeat you. I was just worried."
"Why the hell would you move, Yvie?" Uli tosses his good hand in the air. "I have a place I can move to. You don't. That doesn't make any sense." He eyes the bar and purses his lips, but he knows that's not a good move with the meds in his system. Logically, anyway. Still, he'd love for that not to be the case. He watches Stavros go and frowns. "You realize that wasn't a fair thing to ask of him, right? I'm not a child. If I don't tell you something, that's my decision. That's not on him." He thumbs after the departing Zeltron. "You worry too much. You need to trust me. And you need to respect my decisions even if you disagree."
Stavros is not present. He is talking to a bartender here, a waiter there, making occasional notes on his computer bracer.
"So, it's fine for me to hear you've been this badly injured by simply walking in on you in a bar?" Yvie shakes her head, crossing her arms. "You're not a child, you're my brother. So, maybe don't treat me like a child, either. I should trust you? When you tell me you're going to a party and are instead getting yourself injured? I should trust you when you say you're working at a bar when that's clearly not the case?" The shot of whiskey seems to have loosened her tongue - were it not already loose before. "Perhaps I asked Stavros to tell me when you're injured because I actually believe he'll tell me the truth."
"I don't tell you these things because I know you're going to freak out. I'm honestly worried you'd rather see me in prison than let me make my own damned choices." Uli is not someone who raises his voice easily, but it's starting to go up now. He's also talking a bit with his hand. "If you accepted that I am doing what I want with my own life and didn't fingershake at me constantly, I would tell you the truth!"
At that, Yvie looks incredibly and undeniably hurt. "Uli, I would never rather see you in prison. Just because I don't agree with what you're doing..." She shakes her head. "I love you, Uli. I'm never going to agree with you constantly breaking the law. The reason I'm finger shaking at you now is because the last three times I've seen you, you've been badly injured for one reason or another and I'm worried that it will only escalate. What I am I supposed to do? Tell you that I'm fine with you being injured? Because I'm not. I hate it."
"Nar Shaddaa is dangerous! I don't know if you've noticed that. I got hurt plenty before this job." Uli's nostrils flare, but he visibly calms himself. He takes a breath. "Do you know what we were doing that got me hurt this time? These people who barely know me, risked their lives to get a pair of gangsters off my back. The ones who cut me and beat me. I got hurt because I don't have enough training yet. It was my fault. But there was no way I was going to let them go and take care of my problem for me." He sits back and winces a little in pain. "Don't you see, Yvie? If I stopped running away and let people walk all over me, they'd eventually come for you. And these people who know who I am don't stop knowing who I am just because I decide to become a shopkeep. You show weakness on this moon, you mark yourself."
"Don't pull that Nar Shaddaa is dangerous on me," Yvie points a finger at him, though her voice holds little in the way of an edge to it. "I've lived here just as long as you have." Instead she moves back to the table, dropping into the opposite seat that Stavros left before. For awhile, she doesn't say anything. She doesn't even look over to where she knows Stavros is still chatting up the bartender. "You don't have to worry about protecting me. I can protect myself." There's no bite to her tone, no bravado. Her anger has quickly dissipated and she pulls over the slightly melting second drink Stavros ordered for her. Idly, she plays with the umbrella. "Are you saying I'm a weakness?"
"Of course you are. And I'm your weakness. That's how it works. That's why you have to back each other up. Yvie..." Uli grits his teeth and rubs his forehead. "I'll make a deal with you, okay? I'll tell you what I'm getting into, if you promise not to wag your finger at me and demand I stop. Being concerned is one thing, being outright judgmental about what I'm doing is another."
It's true that they are each other's weaknesses and Yvie looks up and gives Uli a bit of a smile as he says it. For a moment, she thinks this through. As she does so, she takes a very long drink of her sweet alcoholic beverage. Luckily, this one is far less potent than the whiskey shot and she's able to do it without coughing. Setting the glass half empty back down on the table, she looks up at her brother. "Okay. It's a deal. But, you also have to promise me you won't take on meaninglessly dangerous jobs." She knows she'll never get him to agree to simply non-dangerous jobs.
"If you'll promise not to second guess my judgment about what's 'meaningfully dangerous.'" It's like a senate negotiation between siblings right now. It makes sense, though. You don't survive in orphanages and stay close without the ability to broker these kinds of compromises. The Gosse siblings could probably print a book of all their past negotiations. Both of them probably missed their callings as diplomats. Uli straightens. "I should, uh, go lie down." He clears his throat. "In the interests of full disclosure, I accidentally double-dosed on my pain pills earlier and got high as fuck." He says that straight-faced.
"Can I yell at you when you clearly misjudge what meaningfully dangerous is?" Yvie replies with a bit of a grin, taking it as a joke. However, she sighs and just nods her head. "And I can still point out to you when something the Rebel Yell says or does seems clearly wrong. Not just the regular things." The ones they know she already disagrees with. Then, her eyes widen and she attempts to not go into rabid older sister mode. Instead, she finishes the drink in front of her and moves to stand. "Okay, let's get you home." She gives him a look at his swear, but does not comment.
